freezing touchpad

[fizzyo]

Have just taken deliverey of inspiron 1720. Touchpad freezes intermittently. no apperent pattern. During use freezes about 5 secs, then ok again. Intend to phone support Mon. But am I doing anything thick?!

[Patrick77]

I have the same problem Touchpad freezes no apperent pattern 2-3 sec. (dell Vostro 1700, a week old) Contacted dell support, they say I need new video drivers, but it didn't help.

[robert2513]

I've been battling the same problem on an 1720 I have here for almost 2 months now. The touchpad and buttons will be working fine then stops responding for 2-5 seconds, afterwards returning to normal. Other times a lag will develop between touchpad and figure movement for up to a minute before returning to normal.  The problem seems to be intermittent.

I've eliminated all the usual suspects (viruses/spyware, corrupt drivers, background processes, dirty touchpad) but the problem persists. I contacted Dell last month and first they suggested to reinstall Vista. I went ahead and performed a fresh install. Thinking that maybe some program was causing the problem, I only installed the latest updates and drivers. Unfortunately, the touchpad acted up. I contacted Dell a second time and they had the palmrest replaced but this did not fix the problem. The system passes the diagnostics.

Has anyone else had this problem or know of a possible fix? What makes this hard is that, as Patrick77 mentioned, there seems to be no apparent reason for why this happens. Checking the task manager when the problem occurs shows nothing out of the ordinary. 

Any comments will be appreciated. Thanks,
robert2513

EDIT: Clarified problem.

Message Edited by robert2513 on 03-03-2008 11:02 PM

[robert2513]

Hello again. Just a quick update.

Contacted Dell again on Tuesday about this problem and they sent a tech out yesterday (Friday). When the tech was here, asked him the revision numbers of the old and new motherboards. The old one was 'A01' and the new one is now 'A00' and came with BIOS version A05 installed.

Unfortunately, as I was using the laptop now, the touchpad acted up : lag between touchpad and figure movement, which lasted for about ~30 seconds. I know the motherboards are practically the same but to eliminate any software problems I am going to reinstall Vista. I'll post back with any updates.

robert2513

[humin2]

You're not alone on this one.  I have the same problem.   Thanks for pointing out this thread for me.

[robert2513]

Hi humin2,

Glad to help.  Hopefully this problem will get fixed.

I finished doing a clean install of Vista today with drivers and updates only.  I keep using it and see what happens. 

robert2513

[robert2513]

No luck on the clean Vista install.  Back to the drawing board.   :-/

[humin2]

Keep trying, I have to travel for a couple weeks so I can't do anything about it until I get back.

 -dn-

[vitog123]

my touchpad is really bad.

compared with a similar spec'd e1705 its pathetic. it doesnt have much accuracy or sensitivity despite the adjustments in the software (they do nothing)

how can dell make such a nice set up and attach a faulty touchpad?

[robert2513]

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@humin2 wrote:

Keep trying, I have to travel for a couple weeks so I can't do anything about it until I get back.

-dn-

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Have a safe trip. No worries, I'll keep at it.

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@vitog123 wrote:

my touchpad is really bad.

compared with a similar spec'd e1705 its pathetic. it doesnt have much accuracy or sensitivity despite the adjustments in the software (they do nothing)

how can dell make such a nice set up and attach a faulty touchpad?

---

Sorry to hear that. The problem you are having sounds more severe than the occasional freezing/lag although two may be related. Have you tried uninstalling & reinstalling the latest drivers and Dell Touchpad software. Could be the current install is corrupt.

To uninstall the old software, click on the Windows Orb (assuming you're running Vista) and in the search box, type in Programs and Features and press enter. Scroll down the list and double-click on Dell Touchpad: this will start the uninstaller. Reboot the machine and then download the lastest drivers here: link here.

If that doesn't work, is the laptop still under warranty? You may just have a bad touchpad and need to get a replacement.

Good luck and let us know how it works out.

robert2513

EDIT: Formatting

Message Edited by robert2513 on 03-14-2008 11:36 PM